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<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-2>This page begun September 11,
2001, 11am EST</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-2>Last updated August 24,2002,
4pm EST</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://terror.r2.ru/diary.htm">(Russian
language version of this page)</a></font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.peoplenet.pl/WTC/index_graceflisa.htm">(Polish
language version of this page</a><font color="#184B81">)</font></font></font>
<br>&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="#journal">Diary of September 11</a></font></li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="#updates">Notes &amp; Links</a></font></li>
</ul>

<table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="665" >
<tr>
<td>
<center><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">9/11 Photos - Taken On and Near
Canal Street, 9am-11am</font></b></center>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#F63F1B"><font size=-2>PLEASE
NOTE: All images are the copyrighted property of the author. It is unlawful
to copy, print or otherwise use them without permission. Thank you for
respecting this.</font></font></font>
<table CELLSPACING=9 CELLPADDING=0 >
<tr>
<td WIDTH="320"><img SRC="15.JPG" ALT="Both towers on fire, 9:15am" BORDER=0 height=239 width=320></td>

<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><img SRC="22.JPG" ALT="both towers on fire, 9:15am" BORDER=0 height=240 width=320></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>9:15 - both towers on fire</font></font></td>

<td></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td WIDTH="320"><img SRC="28.JPG" ALT="zoomed in" BORDER=0 height=239 width=320></td>

<td><img SRC="29.JPG" ALT="wider shot" BORDER=0 height=241 width=320></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><img SRC="30.JPG" ALT="tower 2 crumbles" BORDER=0 height=240 width=320></td>

<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><img SRC="31.JPG" ALT="tower 2 collapses." BORDER=0 height=241 width=320></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td WIDTH="320"><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Tower 2 starts
to crumble. The top 1/3 toppled to the east (left), then, with a soft roar,
the building pulverized underneath it, dropping straight down. It looked
like footage of a demolition.</font></font></td>

<td WIDTH="320"><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Tower 2 collapses.
From his 25th floor balcony my friend Paul saw people jumping from the
top of the building right before it fell.</font></font></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><img SRC="32.JPG" ALT="billowing smoke from tower 1" BORDER=0 height=242 width=320></td>

<td WIDTH="320"><img SRC="33.JPG" ALT="fire spreads in tower 1" BORDER=0 height=245 width=320></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td></td>

<td WIDTH="320"><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>At this point
the fire in Tower 1, which had previously looked like a ragged bite out
of the east side, has spread horizontally all the way across.</font></font></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><img SRC="34.JPG" ALT="tower 1 collapses" BORDER=0 height=243 width=320></td>

<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><img SRC="35.JPG" ALT="collapse of tower 1" BORDER=0 height=237 width=320></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="320"><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Tower
1 collapses. Just as with Tower 2, the top crumbled off first.</font></font></td>

<td WIDTH="320"><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Tower 1 going.
It's not visible from the photos, everything happened too quickly. But
the corner beams split off the building in all directions like a banana
peel.</font></font></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td WIDTH="320"><img SRC="38.JPG" ALT="the new empty skyline" BORDER=0 height=240 width=320></td>

<td ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP>
<br><a href="wtc2000.html"><img SRC="noWTC2.JPG" BORDER=0 height=145 width=320></a>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="wtc2000.html">WTC Before and After</a></font>
<br>&nbsp;
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="#journal">Diary of Sept 11</a></font></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Both towers gone</font></font></td>

<td></td>
</tr>
</table>

<center><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#FA4E19"><font size=-2>Again,
please note: All images are the copyrighted property of the author. They
are posted here as a public service.</font></font></font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#FA4E19"><font size=-2>Thank
you for not copying, printing or otherwise using them without permission.</font></font></font></b>
<hr WIDTH="100%"></center>
<a NAME="journal"></a>
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<h4>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">September 11 Journal</font></h4>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">9am - We were out walking the dog and dozens
of people were standing still on Broadway looking south at the sky. The
towers had just been hit, and were on fire. We walked west to Mercer, then
to Greene. People stood in the streets. Others were walking toward us from
downtown. Radios played out windows. I kept thinking, "This is just like
that movie ARMAGEDDON."&nbsp; And I hadn't even see it.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">10am - Got home and went up to the roof,
where our neighbors were congregated. Shortly after, we saw Tower 2, then
Tower 1 collapse.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">11am - Radios have been calling retired
police officers to duty. All bridges and tunnels have been sealed. In the
streets thousands people are walking north, ankles and feet covered in
grey ash. We're a block above Canal Street. The mayor has asked everyone
below Canal Street to head north.&nbsp;</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">12 noon - Packed day packs and headed out
with the dog. Left a big bowl of food, 2 bowls of water and the filled
bathtub for the cat. Just as a precaution. Of course we hope to be back
home soon. I just hope the cat doesn't eat it all this afternoon. We walked
north on Lafayette with our upstairs neighbors, T. and B., and their dog.
Along the way we saw cars covered with that grey ash. B. thinks it's asbestos
dust or insulation from the buildings. Outside the Bowery Mission a table
distributed cups of water, and chairs were set out on the sidewalk, for
anyone who needed to sit and rest. On Astor Place I saw a dazed-looking
Asian girl with grey dust covering her sandals and her red polished toenails.
At Grace Church School parents were picking up kids, and teachers were
standing on the steps. The curious thing is that some people were walking
south, and others seemed to be proceeding normally with their day as though
they hadn't heard. An elderly couple excitedly discussed bathroom fixtures
in a store window, oblivious to the steady determined flow of people fleeing
downtown, while a block away, at the corner of 23rd Street and Park Avenue,
Special Forces troops in camouflage and machine guns directed traffic.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">We parted from T. and B. at 34th Street.
They were going to T.'s brother's on 37th Street. J. didn't feel that was
far north enough, so we kept going. The Empire State Building was also
cordoned off and guarded. Madison Square Garden and Port Authority, same.
We ended up on 10th Avenue. Passed two homeless guys sleeping on the sidewalk
on the same block of 38th Street. Lots of businesses along the way were
closed and closing, including every Korean restaurant on 35th Street. It
took us a while just to find a place to buy a Coke, but strangely, a store
in the garment district that appeared to sell only sewing needles remained
open.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">2pm - The dog is 11 years old; by this
time he was very tired. We finally managed to find a cab that would take
us uptown to 113th Street, to my friend J.'s apartment. The driver was
a Pakistani-American Muslim. His wife and son had just given blood in Queens;
he was very worried about possible anti-Muslim violence in coming days.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">9pm - After resting at J.'s, glued the
entiret time to the TV, we found another cab and are now in Washington
Heights, at our friends S. and K.'s, because they are the furthest north
of anyone we know in Manhattan. Minutes ago, the police commissioner just
announced that they have apprehended a van filled with explosives at the
foot of the George Washington Bridge on the New Jersey side. We are only
3 blocks north of the GWB here, but feel relatively safe, given the distance
and the tight police watch on the bridge. I'm glad we left home. I heard
from someone who lives near Houston Street that her apartment is enveloped
in smoke. That's 5 blocks above our apartment. I imagine our place is the
same or worse. Downtown is sealed from 14th Street on down, which is a
full mile north of our apartment, so we won't be able to get home for at
least another day. I have a job interview tomorrow morning. I assume it's
off. And J. says her husband is stuck in New Jersey, after spending hours
trying to get home.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">But we are all safe, and in touch.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I hope you and all your loved ones are
well tonight. Our thoughts go to the ones who are lost, and their families.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">September 11, 2001</font>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="mailto:yodio@earthlink.net?subject=WTC page">G.S.</a></font></b></td>
</tr>
</table>

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<td>
<h3>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#71985E">The Sukkah &amp; the
World Trade Center</font></font></h3>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">In just a few weeks, the Jewish community
will celebrate the harvest festival by building "sukkot."</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">What is a "sukkah"? Just a fragile hut
with a leafy roof, the most vulnerable of houses. Vulnerable in time, where
it lasts for only a week each year. Vulnerable in space, where its roof
must be not only leafy but leaky -- letting in the starlight, and gusts
of wind and rain.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">In the evening prayers , we plead with
God -- "Ufros alenu sukkat shlomekha" -- "Spread over all of us Your sukkah
of shalom."</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Why a sukkah?-- Why does the prayer plead
to God for a "sukkah of shalom" rather than God's "tent" or "house" or
"palace" of peace?</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Precisely because the sukkah is so vulnerable.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">For much of our lives we try to achieve
peace and safety by building with steel and concrete and toughness. Pyramids,
air raid shelters, Pentagons, World Trade Centers. Hardening what might
be targets and, like Pharaoh, hardening our hearts against what is foreign
to us.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">But the sukkah comes to remind us: We are
in truth all vulnerable. If "a hard rain gonna fall," it will fall on all
of us.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Americans have felt invulnerable. The oceans,
our wealth, our military power have made up what seemed an invulnerable
shield. We may have begun feeling uncomfortable in the nuclear age, but
no harm came to us. Yet yesterday the ancient truth came home: We all live
in a sukkah.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Not only the targets of attack but also
the instruments of attack were among our proudest possessions: the sleek
transcontinental airliners. They availed us nothing. Worse than nothing.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Even the greatest oceans do not shield
us; even the mightiest buildings do not shield us; even the wealthiest
balance sheets and the most powerful weapons do not shield us.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">There are only wispy walls and leaky roofs
between us. The planet is in fact one interwoven web of life. I MUST love
my neighbor as I do myself, because my neighbor and myself are interwoven.
If I hate my neighbor, the hatred will recoil upon me.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">What is the lesson, when we learn that
we -- all of us -- live in a sukkah? How do we make such a vulnerable house
into a place of shalom, of peace and security and harmony and wholeness?</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The lesson is that only a world where we
all recognize our vulnerability can become a world where all communities
feel responsible to all other communities. And only such a world can prevent
such acts of rage and murder.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">If I treat my neighbor's pain and grief
as foreign, I will end up suffering when my neighbor's pain and grief curdle
into rage.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">But if I realize that in simple fact the
walls between us are full of holes, I can reach through them in compassion
and connection.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Suspicion about the perpetrators of this
act of infamy has fallen upon some groups that espouse a tortured version
of Islam. Whether or not this turns out to be so, America must open its
heart and mind to the pain and grief of those in the Arab and Muslim worlds
who feel excluded, denied, unheard, disempowered, defeated.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This does not mean ignoring or forgiving
whoever wrought such bloodiness. They must be found and brought to trial,
without killing still more innocents and wrecking still more the fragile
"sukkot" of lawfulness. Their violence must be halted, their rage must
be calmed -- and the pain behind them must be heard and addressed.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Of course not every demand becomes legitimate,
just because it is an expression of pain. But we must open the ears of
our hearts to ask: Have we had a hand in creating the pain? Can we act
to lighten it?</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Instead of entering upon a "war of civilizations,"
we must pursue a planetary peace.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Shalom,&nbsp;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Rabbi Arthur Waskow</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Rabbi Waskow is Director
of the <a href="http://www.shalomctr.org/html/peace.html">Shalom Center</a></font></font></td>
</tr>
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<td BGCOLOR="#DADCCC">
<h3>
<a NAME="Noam Chomsky"></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1><a href="http://www.zmag.org/chomb92.htm">Noam
Chomsky on Osama Bin Laden &amp; WTC<br>
</a></font><font color="#184B81"><font size=+0>(Radio B92, Belgrade)</font></font></font></h3>
<b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Q: Why do you think these attacks happened?</font></b>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">To answer the question we must first identify
the perpetrators of the crimes. It is generally assumed, plausibly, that
their origin is the Middle East region, and that the attacks probably trace
back to the Osama Bin Laden network, a widespread and complex organization,
doubtless inspired by Bin Laden but not necessarily acting under his control.
Let us assume that this is true. Then to answer your question a sensible
person would try to ascertain Bin Laden's views, and the sentiments of
the large reservoir of supporters he has throughout the region. About all
of this, we have a great deal of information.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Bin Laden has been interviewed extensively
over the years by highly reliable Middle East specialists, notably the
most eminent correspondent in the region, Robert Fisk (London&nbsp; Independent),
who has intimate knowledge of the entire region and direct experience over
decades. A Saudi Arabian millionaire, Bin Laden became a militant Islamic
leader in the war to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan. He was one
of the many religious fundamentalist extremists recruited, armed, and financed
by the CIA and their allies in Pakistani intelligence to cause maximal
harm to the Russians -- quite possibly delaying their withdrawal, many
analysts suspect -- though whether he personally happened to have direct
contact with the CIA is unclear, and not particularly important.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Not surprisingly, the CIA preferred the
most fanatic and cruel fighters they could mobilize. The end result was
to "destroy a moderate regime and create a fanatical one, from groups recklessly
financed by the Americans" (according to London Times correspondent Simon
Jenkins, also a specialist on the region). These "Afghanis" as they are
called (many, like Bin Laden, not from Afghanistan) carried out terror
operations across the border in Russia, but they terminated these after
Russia withdrew. Their war was not against Russia, which they despise,
but against the Russian occupation and Russia's crimes against Muslims.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The "Afghanis" did not terminate their
activities, however. They joined Bosnian Muslim forces in the Balkan Wars;
the US did not object, just as it tolerated Iranian support for them, for
complex reasons that we need not pursue here, apart from noting that concern
for the grim fate of the Bosnians was not prominent among them. The "Afghanis"
are also fighting the Russians in Chechnya, and, quite possibly, are involved
in carrying out terrorist attacks in Moscow and elsewhere in Russian territory.
Bin Laden and his "Afghanis" turned against the US in 1990 when they established
permanent bases in Saudi Arabia -- from his point of view, a counterpart
to the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, but far more significant because
of Saudi Arabia's special status as the guardian of the holiest shrines.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Bin Laden is also bitterly opposed to the
corrupt and repressive regimes of the region, which he regards as "un-Islamic,"
including the Saudi Arabian regime, the most extreme Islamic fundamentalist
regime in the world, apart from the Taliban, and a close US ally since
its origins. Bin Laden despises the US for its support of these regimes.
Like others in the region, he is also outraged by long-standing US support
for Israel's brutal military occupation, now in its 35th year: Washington's
decisive diplomatic, military, and economic intervention in support of
the killings, the harsh and destructive siege over many years, the daily
humiliation to which Palestinians are subjected, the expanding settlements
designed to break the occupied territories into Bantustan-like cantons
and take control of the resources, the gross violation of the Geneva Conventions,
and other actions that are recognized as crimes throughout most of the
world, apart from the US, which has prime responsibility for them.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">And like others, he contrasts Washington's
dedicated support for these crimes with the decade-long US-British assault
against the civilian population of Iraq, which has devastated the society
and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths while strengthening Saddam Hussein
-- who was a favored friend and ally of the US and Britain right through
his worst atrocities, including the gassing of the Kurds, as people of
the region also remember well, even if Westerners prefer to forget the
facts.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">These sentiments are very widely shared.
The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 14) published a survey of opinions of wealthy
and privileged Muslims in the Gulf region (bankers, professionals, businessmen
with close links to the U.S.). They expressed much the same views: resentment
of the U.S. policies of supporting Israeli crimes and blocking the international
consensus on a diplomatic settlement for many years while devastating Iraqi
civilian society, supporting harsh and repressive anti-democratic regimes
throughout the region, and imposing barriers against economic development
by "propping up oppressive regimes." Among the great majority of people
suffering deep poverty and oppression, similar sentiments are far more
bitter, and are the source of the fury and despair that has led to suicide
bombings, as commonly understood by those who are interested in the facts.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The U.S., and much of the West, prefers
a more comforting story. To quote the lead analysis in the New York Times
(Sept. 16), the perpetrators acted out of "hatred for the values cherished
in the West as freedom, tolerance, prosperity, religious pluralism and
universal suffrage." U.S. actions are irrelevant, and therefore need not
even be mentioned (Serge Schmemann). This is a convenient picture, and
the general stance is not unfamiliar in intellectual history; in fact,
it is close to the norm. It happens to be completely at variance with everything
we know, but has all the merits of self-adulation and uncritical support
for power.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">It is also widely recognized that Bin Laden
and others like him are praying for "a great assault on Muslim states,"
which will cause "fanatics to flock to his cause" (Jenkins, and many others.).
That too is familiar. The escalating cycle of violence is typically welcomed
by the harshest and most brutal elements on both sides, a fact evident
enough from the recent history of the Balkans, to cite only one of many
cases.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Q: What consequences will they have
on US inner policy and to the American self reception?</font></b>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">US policy has already been officially announced.
The world is being offered a "stark choice": join us, or "face the certain
prospect of death and destruction." Congress has authorized the use of
force against any individuals or countries the President determines to
be involved in the attacks, a doctrine that every supporter regards as
ultra-criminal. That is easily demonstrated. Simply ask how the same people
would have reacted if Nicaragua had adopted this doctrine after the U.S.
had rejected the orders of the World Court to terminate its "unlawful use
of force" against Nicaragua and had vetoed a Security Council resolution
calling on all states to observe international law. And that terrorist
attack was far more severe and destructive even than this atrocity.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">As for how these matters are perceived
here, that is far more complex. One should bear in mind that the media
and the intellectual elites generally have their particular agendas. Furthermore,
the answer to this question is, in significant measure, a matter of decision:
as in many other cases, with sufficient dedication and energy, efforts
to stimulate fanaticism, blind hatred, and submission to authority can
be reversed. We all know that very well.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Q: Do you expect U.S. to profoundly
change their policy to the rest of the world?</font></b>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The initial response was to call for intensifying
the policies that led to the fury and resentment that provides the background
of support for the terrorist attack, and to pursue more intensively the
agenda of the most hard line elements of the leadership: increased militarization,
domestic regimentation, attack on social programs. That is all to be expected.
Again, terror attacks, and the escalating cycle of violence they often
engender, tend to reinforce the authority and prestige of the most harsh
and repressive elements of a society. But there is nothing inevitable about
submission to this course.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Q: After the first shock, came fear
of what the U.S. answer is going to be. Are you afraid, too?</font></b>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Every sane person should be afraid of the
likely reaction -- the one that has already been announced, the one that
probably answers Bin Laden's prayers. It is highly likely to escalate the
cycle of violence, in the familiar way, but in this case on a far greater
scale.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The U.S. has already demanded that Pakistan
terminate the food and other supplies that are keeping at least some of
the starving and suffering people of Afghanistan alive. If that demand
is implemented, unknown numbers of people who have not the remotest connection
to terrorism will die, possibly millions. Let me repeat: the U.S. has demanded
that Pakistan kill possibly millions of people who are themselves victims
of the Taliban. This has nothing to do even with revenge. It is at a far
lower moral level even than that. The significance is heightened by the
fact that this is mentioned in passing, with no comment, and probably will
hardly be noticed. We can learn a great deal about the moral level of the
reigning intellectual culture of the West by observing the reaction to
this demand. I think we can be reasonably confident that if the American
population had the slightest idea of what is being done in their name,
they would be utterly appalled. It would be instructive to seek historical
precedents.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">If Pakistan does not agree to this and
other U.S. demands, it may come under direct attack as well -- with unknown
consequences. If Pakistan does submit to U.S. demands, it is not impossible
that the government will be overthrown by forces much like the Taliban
-- who in this case will have nuclear weapons. That could have an effect
throughout the region, including the oil producing states. At this point
we are considering the possibility of a war that may destroy much of human
society.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Even without pursuing such possibilities,
the likelihood is that an attack on Afghans will have pretty much the effect
that most analysts expect: it will enlist great numbers of others to support
of Bin Laden, as he hopes. Even if he is killed, it will make little difference.
His voice will be heard on cassettes that are distributed throughout the
Islamic world, and he is likely to be revered as a martyr, inspiring others.
It is worth bearing in mind that one suicide bombing -- a truck driven
into a U.S. military base -- drove the world's major military force out
of Lebanon 20 years ago. The opportunities for such attacks are endless.
And suicide attacks are very hard to prevent.</font>
<p><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Q: "The world will never be the same
after 11/09/01". Do you think so?</font></b>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The horrendous terrorist attacks on Tuesday
are something quite new in world affairs, not in their scale and character,
but in the target. For the US, this is the first time since the War of
1812 that its national territory has been under attack, even threat. Its
colonies have been attacked, but not the national territory itself. During
these years the US virtually exterminated the indigenous population, conquered
half of Mexico, intervened violently in the surrounding region, conquered
Hawaii and the Philippines (killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos),
and in the past half century particularly, extended its resort to force
throughout much of the world. The number of victims is colossal.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">For the first time, the guns have been
directed the other way. The same is true, even more dramatically, of Europe.
Europe has suffered murderous destruction, but from internal wars, meanwhile
conquering much of the world with extreme brutality. It has not been under
attack by its victims outside, with rare exceptions (the IRA in England,
for example). It is therefore natural that NATO should rally to the support
of the US; hundreds of years of imperial violence have an enormous impact
on the intellectual and moral culture.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">It is correct to say that this is a novel
event in world history, not because of the scale of the atrocity -- regrettably
-- but because of the target. How the West chooses to react is a matter
of supreme importance. If the rich and powerful choose to keep to their
traditions of hundreds of years and resort to extreme violence, they will
contribute to the escalation of a cycle of violence, in a familiar dynamic,
with long-term consequences that could be awesome. Of course, that is by
no means inevitable. An aroused public within the more free and democratic
societies can direct policies towards a much more humane and honorable
course.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">----</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Noam Chomsky is Distinguished
Professor of Linguistics at MIT and world-renowned scholar and political
analyst, called "arguably the most important intellectual alive" by The
New York Times. Chomsky is the author of dozens of books, including <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679720340/qid=1000914002/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/104-5677263-3069516">Manufacturing
Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media</a>.</font></font></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td BGCOLOR="#FFF9DE">
<h4>
<a NAME="updates"></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Notes &amp; Links</font></h4>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">"An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.</font>
<br>&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
<b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=94254> >">Robert
Fisk </a><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011001&s=fisk">in
The Nation</a>:</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> "the Suicide Bomber
against the Nuclear Power"</font></li>

<br>&nbsp;
<li>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b><a href="http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/80points_eng.doc">80
Theses for Peace</a></b>, a primer (downloadable) about the Israeli-Palestinian
situation past and present.</font></li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">An eerie correspondence to the present moment?</font></li>

<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">...from the first chapter of Herman Mellville's
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679600108/qid=1002410864/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_7_4/104-7579581-8767145">Moby-Dick</a>:</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#3D3832">"And, doubtless,
my going on this whaling voyage formed part of the grand programme of Providence
that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude
and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part
of the bill must have run something like this:</font></font>
<br>&nbsp;
<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#3D3832">'Grand Contested
Election for the Presidency of the United States.</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#3D3832">'Whaling voyage
by one Ishmael.</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#3D3832">'Bloody Battle in&nbsp;
Afghanistan.' "</font></font></blockquote>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>
<b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14624">Amos
Elon in the New York Review</a>:</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">
In Jerusalem, hatred has often been another form of prayer</font></li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b><a href="http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2001/June/Afghan/index.html" class="b">Mohsen
Makhmalbaf on conditions in Afghanistan</a></b> (September 17, 2001): "If
you read my article in full, it will take about an hour of your time. In
this hour, 14 more people will have died of war and hunger and 60 others
will have become refugees in other countries."</font></li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>
<b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><a href="http://www.infopal.org/docs/spics.htm">Palestinian
Solidarity with America in Pictures</a>:</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">
Images you don't see on the mainstream media</font></li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b><a href="http://gush-shalom.org/archives/article162.html">Uri
Avnery of Gush Shalom:</a></b> "The twin towers of Peace and Justice must
be built."</font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<table BORDER CELLSPACING=5 CELLPADDING=14 COLS=1 WIDTH="80%" >
<tr>
<td BGCOLOR="#E3F9D3">
<h3>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">September 1, 1939</font></font></h3>

<h4>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">by W. H. Auden</font></font></h4>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">I sit in one of the
dives</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">On Fifty-second
Street</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Uncertain and afraid</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">As the clever hopes
expire</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Of a low dishonest
decade:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Waves of anger and
fear</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Circulate over the
bright</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">And darkened lands
of the earth,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Obsessing our private
lives;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The unmentionable
odour of death</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Offends the September
night.</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Accurate scholarship
can</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Unearth the whole
offence</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">From Luther until
now</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">That has driven
a culture mad,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Find what occurred
at Linz</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">What huge imago
made</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">A psychopathic god:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">I and the public
know</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">What all schoolchildren
learn,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Those to whom evil
is done</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Do evil in return.</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Exiled Thucydides
knew</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">All that a speech
can say</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">About Democracy,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">And what dictators
do,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The elderly rubbish
they talk</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">To an apathetic
grave;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Analysed all in
his book,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The enlightenment
driven away,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The habit-forming
pain,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Mismanagement and
grief:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">We must suffer them
all again.</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Into this neutral
air</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Where blind skyskrapers
use</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Their full height
to proclaim</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The strength of
Collective Man,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Each language pours
its vain</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Competitive excuse:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">But who can live
for long</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">In an euphoric dream;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Out of the mirror
they stare,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Imperialism's face</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">And the international
wrong.</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Faces along the bar</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Cling to their average
day:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The lights must
never go out,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The music must always
play,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">All the conventions
conspire</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">To make this fort
assume</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The furniture of
home;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Lest we should see
where we are,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Lost in a haunted
wood,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Children afraid
of the night</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Who have never been
happy or good.</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The windiest militant
trash</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Important Persons
shout</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Is not so crude
as our wish:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">What mad Nijinsky
wrote</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">About Diaghilev</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Is true of the normal
heart;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">For the error bred
in the bone</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Of each woman and
each man</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Craves what it cannot
have,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Not universal love</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">But to be loved
alone.</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">From the conservative
dark</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Into the ethical
life</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The dense commuters
come,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Repeating their
morning vow;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">'I will be true
to the wife,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">I'll concentrate
more on my work,'</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">And helpless governors
wake</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">To resume their
compulsory game:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Who can release
them now,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Who can reach the
deaf,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Who can speak for
the dumb?</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">All I have is a voice</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">To undo the folded
lie,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">The romantic lie
in the brain</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Of the sensual man-in-the-street</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">And the lie of Authority</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Whose buildings
grope the sky:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">There is no such
thing as the State</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">And no one exists
alone;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Hunger allows no
choice</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">To the citizen or
the police;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">We must love one
another or die.</font></font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Defenceless under
the night</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Our world in stupor
lies;</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Yet, dotted everywhere,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Ironic points of
light</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Flash out wherever
the Just</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Exchange their messages:</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">May I, composed
like them</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Of Eros and of dust,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Beleaguered by the
same</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Negation and despair,</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#291A10">Show an affirming
flame.</font></font></td>
</tr>
</table>

<div class="letter" style="background-color: #9cc; padding: 20px;">&nbsp;</div>






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